Maroon Bells June 24th, 2011

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Maroon Bells on the hike in. Possibly the most photographed mountains in Colorado, why not one more?

Summary

Maroon bells climb ascent via the Bell Cord Couloir, Maroon Peak, traverse across the Maroon Bells ridge to North Maroon Peak, descent via Northeast Ridge.

Route

Our track is in dark red, as you can see we got off route on the descent.  From the first photo you can see we had quite a bit more snow than shown in Google Earth, totally obliterating the trail.  On the date of our climb, snow pack in the area was above 250%

Climbers

John

Maroon Ridge with Maroon Peak in the background. John has almost completed the 54 Colorado 14ers, half of the US State high points including Ranier and is on his way to completing all the Boulder County high points.

Me
 

Me, On top of Maroon peak feeling not so great at over 14K feet after hard rock scrambling in crampons to gain the summit. Now 40, I don't get out much these days due to having small children and I was probably not in the best shape for this climb.

Stats

2.1 mi., 685' eg. hike to camp

8.8 mi., 5058' eg. summit day

8:10p - 9:10p ascent to camp
Temperature at start 37F/3C
2:55a - 8:15a Bell Cord couloir climb
Temperature at couloir exit 39F/4C
9:30a Maroon Pk summit 14,156 Feet/4315 Meters 24th highest peak in Colorado
11:15a Bell Cord saddle
3:30p NM summit 14,014Feet/4271 Meters, not officially considered a separate peak
Temperature ~53F/12C
9:30p camp
10:45p TH

1 hr approach to camp

5.25 hrs Bell Cord couloir climb
3 hrs Maroon Pk climb (up & back)
4.25 hrs Bell Cord saddle to NM traverse
6 hrs Total S->N Bells Traverse
6 hrs descent from NM to camp
1.25 hrs hike out

The Hike In

Packing up our gear in the parking lot.

John snaps some photos on the way in while locals and tourists alike enjoy the evening by Maroon Lake

John hiking through the forest

Bivy
We arrived the night before after driving 3.5 hours from Denver to the trailhead.  We stopped at a subway in Leadville and bought sandwiches to eat at the trailhead.  We were then going to use the long day immediately after the Summer Solstice to hike to Crater Lake and bivouac for a 2am alpine start, the moon was set to rise at 1:55am, about a 1/3 moon.

John Found a perfect level grassy spot for our bivy,  I slept like a baby in my bivy sack.
  
Climb
As John kept reminding me, the climb we were doing was a combination of several routes and had 4 distinct phases each with their own charachter.